2017 Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg
The 2017 Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg will be held on March 12, 2017 as the opener of the 2017 IndyCar Series season. Juan Pablo Montoya was the defending champion, but did not participate in the race that year as his only 2017 race is the 2017 Indianapolis 500. Sebastien Bourdais won the race from 21st on the grid. He led the most laps and earned 3 bonus points. Countries participating Notable countries that will not participate in the first round include Thailand, which will still have the M-150 Tour that time. This will be Pee Saderd's first qualification since the 2017 Rolex 24 at Daytona, having led Russia to unsuccessful qualification playoff losses to Norway and Bolivia. This will be Russia's first successful qualification to a non-Thai special song/album since the 2017 Rolex 24 at Daytona. Drivers and teams ;Chevrolet * Hélio Castroneves * Simon Pagenaud * Will Power * Josef Newgarden * Conor Daly * Carlos Muñoz * Spencer Pigot * JR Hildebrand ;Honda * Takuma Sato * Marco Andretti * Ryan Hunter-Reay * Alexander Rossi * Max Chilton * Scott Dixon * Tony Kanaan * Charlie Kimball * Sébastien Bourdais * Ed Jones * Graham Rahal * James Hinchcliffe * Mikhail Aleshin USF 2000 results Practice 1 Practice 1 Results Qualifying 1 Qualifying 2 Race 1 Race 2 Pro Mazda results Practice 1 Qualifying 1 Qualifying 2 Race 1 Race 2 Indy Lights results Practice 1 Qualifying 1 Qualifying 2 Race 1 Race 2 IndyCar results Practice 1 Will Power spun, causing the red flag as his countrymen Arcanine and Wario weren't very happy with him. Pee Saderd led Marco Andretti's car for the session after the green flag was back. Link:Practice 1 Results Practice 2 Scott Dixon led the practice for the Ukraine national IndyCar team. This is the second St Petersburg IndyCar practice in a row that Honda engines led. Apolo Anton Ohno caused a red, not allowing Takuma Sato to take any laps. Link:Practice 2 results Practice 3 Scott Dixon continued to top the practice charts for the Ukraine national IndyCar team. With these good practice results, they are aiming to return to their form that saw the country won the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest. Link:Practice 3 Results Qualifications Seeds Seedings are from the 2016 IndyCar Series final standings. Simon Pagenaud (First round) Will Power (Pole Winner) Hélio Castroneves (First round) Josef Newgarden (Qualified) Graham Rahal (Fast 12) Scott Dixon (Qualified) Larvesta (Qualified) Ueli Kestenholz (Fast 12) Mario Lopez (Fast 12) Metagross (Fast 12) Ryan Hunter-Reay (Fast 12) James Hinchcliffe (Qualified) Beartic (First round) Joey Fatone (First round) Pee Saderd (First round) Apolo Anton Ohno (Qualified) Allen Ford (First round) Chespin (Fast 12) Magearna (First round) Jonathan Bald (First round) Pidgeot (First round) Group 1 Scott Dixon, Alexander Rossi, Sébastien Bourdais, Josef Newgarden, Tony Kanaan, Simon Pagenaud, Graham Rahal, Hélio Castroneves, Takuma Sato, Ed Jones, Conor Daly Advancing: Scott Dixon, Josef Newgarden, Apolo Anton Ohno, Larvesta, Metagross, Graham Rahal Not advancing: Simon Pagenaud, Helio Castroneves, Jonathan Bald, Allen Ford, Beartic Group 2 James Hinchcliffe, Max Chilton, Marco Andretti, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Will Power, Charlie Kimball, Carlos Muñoz, JR Hildebrand, Spencer Pigot, Mikhail Aleshin Advancing: Will Power, Ueli Kestenholz, James Hinchcliffe, Chespin, Mario Lopez, Ryan Hunter-Reay Not advancing: Magearna, Pee Saderd, Joey Fatone, Pidgeot Round 2 As group 1 is everyone's group of death, had Simon Pagenaud or Hélio Castroneves advance from their group, Macedonia would have qualified for the 2017 M-150 Thailand Tour and Slovenia would have been eliminated. The playoff results for the tour resulted in voting resulting in Macedonia qualifying instead of Slovenia (unlike Eurovision 2008 and Eurovision 2009, where Macedonia would have qualified for the final had the jury backing vote not been used). ;Qualifiers Advancing: Scott Dixon, James Hinchcliffe, Josef Newgarden, Apolo Anton Ohno, Will Power, Larvesta Not advancing: Chespin, Metagross, Ueli Kestenholz, Graham Rahal, Mario Lopez, Ryan Hunter-Reay Fast Six The six captains (Josef Newgarden, Apolo Anton Ohno, Scott Dixon, Will Power, Larvesta and James Hinchcliffe) are seeking for the pole. Will Power won the pole. In a shock, Apolo Anton Ohno, who many expected to start 6th, will start 5th on the grid. Grid ;Captains Practice Final Scott Dixon led the session again and that was the reason why Aurorus got a five star weekend by Jacqueline Bigar. Ryan Hunter-Reay went into the tires and caused a red. Race Will Power started from the pole, but then Pamela Anderson took the lead away from Power. When the pits began, Simon Pagenaud took the lead and then Beartic took it over after Pagenaud pitted. When Olga Fatkulina pitted, the lead was given to Apolo Anton Ohno. After Ohno pitted, the lead was taken back to fellow Winter Olympian Olga Fatkulina. After Fatkulina pitted, Pagenaud took the lead. When Pagenaud pitted, the lead was taken back to Olga Fatkulina. Fatkulina started 21st in the grid due to a red flag but led the most laps of the race. Olga Fatkulina won the race, doing a Pee Saderd from being hospitalized in July to becoming a Celebrity Family Feud, from starting 21st to winning the race. The first few laps was a caution caused by Garbiñe Muguruza, Mario Lopez and Graham Rahal. Lopez and Muguruza were at least five laps down when the race restarted. Rahal's car stopped and stalled. The next caution was caused for debris by the cars of Joey Fatone and Larvesta. After Munoz was out of the race due to a DNF, Munoz and Lopez will be unseeded at the 2017 Math Open at Indian Wells. His day ended on his 32nd lap. Charlie Kimball will not be seeded for the first time since the 2012 Swiss Open. Spencer Pigot's race was over on his 72nd lap. It is most likely that Kestenholz will miss out on seedings for the Math Open for the first time since a World Cup snowboard cross race in 2006 in Italy; in which he failed to advance from qualifying. Will Power began becoming slow on lap 95, forcing him to be a lap down and likely to be unseeded at a major event for the first time in BATC World Tour history. Will Power ended 19th, most likely would have been seeded had that not happen. It is considered to be one of the biggest shocks of all time. IndyCar officials gave a warning to Hélio Castroneves for hitting pit equipment. Will Power was forced to go through a drive through penalty for the same thing as Castroneves. Apolo Anton Ohno got a warning for unsafe pit release. There was a black flag for Will Power for outside 105%. Simon Pagenaud, Scott Dixon rounded out the podium. Qualification for Math Open seedings The top 16 in the race qualifies for the Math Open seedings. If Pee Saderd driving for Marco Andretti fails to make the top 16, then Siriporn and Earn's albums will be postponed for IndyCar until Long Beach. Since Saderd finished 7th, it will not be postponed. Since Will Power finished 19th and was unseeded originally, BATC opted to use original seeds. Trivia *Row 8 is known as the Pee Saderd-Helio Castroneves rivalry. Category:2017 in sports Category:2017 in the United States Category:2017 in IndyCar Category:IndyCar